The Making of Lent

The current issue of Touchstone magazine has a column about the origins of Lent. The author, William Tighe, teaches history at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Here is his statement about what the period of Lent in the West:

In the West, among Catholics and Protestants alike, Lent will begin on Ash Wednesday, February 17, and end on Maundy Thursday, April 1. It is followed by the Holy Triduum of Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday (April 2, 3, and 4). Sundays are not observed as fast days, so reckoning Lent as extending from Ash Wednesday to Maundy Thursday gives 38 days of fasting, to which the adding of Good Friday and Holy Saturday makes 40.

He also covers how churches in the East observe Lent and how these different traditions have similar origins.